Raven Red
Raven Red is a villainess who appeared in two stories in the 1960s comic strip about the multi national heroines team who fights evil criminals and enemy spy rings,"Jet Dream and her Stunt-girl counterspies". A criminal, Raven Red is undoubtedly an assassin for hire, and her secret base loaded with weaponry suggests a lot of other evil activities, though we're not told what these are. Raven Red and her gang are the only female villains who appear in the Jet Dream strips.The stories are "The Powder Puff Derby caper" '''(1967) and "Menace of the feathered warriors" (1968). The latter features Raven Red on her own, without a gang helping her, though she uses deadly predatory birds against Jet! These stories are back up strips in issues 12 and 20 of the Gold Key '''"Man from UNCLE" comic book series. Like the heroine, Jet Dream, Raven Red is a glamorous aviatrix; she first attacks Jet during the "Powder Puff Derby" air race. This was a real event for only female pilots which took place for many years, going from Honolulu to San Francisco. Raven is able to ambush Jet without fear she can defend herself, as Jet has dismantled her guns to lighten her plane for the race. In "The Powder Puff Derby caper" we see a female enemy agent talking to Raven about assassinating Jet Dream, Raven being paid a lot of money for the job. Raven Red has a secret hq based on a small island in the south pacific, She keeps her 2 aircraft there and has an ammo dump which includes grenades. Jet manages to parachute from her burning plane onto this island, where she has to fight a dangerous single combat against the firearm toting Raven Red and her henchwomen. In the second story''' "Menace of the feathered warriors"''', Raven has escaped from jail and is once again out to kill Jet, though pure vengeance rather than money may now be her motivation. In the second story, Raven has somehow managed to find the Stunt-girl counterspies "top secret" headquarters. Raven challenges Jet to a supposed "fair fight" in a wood, but treacherously snares the stunt girl leader in a net where Red's deadly trained predatory birds are set onto her. Raven Red and her gun-women are defeated by Jet in the first story; the Stunt-girls take the captured Raven and her gang to the police. Jet also captures Raven solo in the second appearance by the villainess. Evil Counterpart We are given no background information about Raven Red - her real name is a mystery. However, from the first story, where Jet falls onto "Raven island" it's obvious the Jet assassination job isn't her first dip into major crime. A secret base (evil hideout) with an ammo dump with grenades and "secret hangars" for planes, indicates Raven is a big time professional criminal. Clearly Raven Red is a kind of inverse version of Jet Dream. All Jet's good qualities are bad ones in her "evil counterpart", Raven Red. Jet is dedicated to fight crime, Raven is a vicious criminal. Jet is ethical, Raven is immoral, ruthless and cold blooded. Jet has the highest motivations, Raven is motivated by greed and hatred. Jet is brave, Raven is a coward. Jet is a straight shooter, Raven is treacherous. "Raven island", where Raven Red "hatches up trouble" is a sinister parallel to the Stunt-girl Counterspy secret base "No man's land" Appearance Raven Red is a tall woman of about 30, with a good figure and short bobbed very red hair swept back from the forehead. She is good looking though her face has a cruel rather predatory look.. Henchwomen Raven Red's henchwomen are also evil negative counterparts of Jet's brave and skilled stunt-girl team. They are a trio of unpleasant youngish women, a blonde and 2 brunettes, in Raven's pay. None are referred to by name. They all carry guns, though don't seem very skilled with them - Jet proves able to dodge their bullets. Happy to kill in cold blood for money, jeering and callous when the odds seemed stacked their way, but quickly rattled and pretty useless as things start to turn against them. Jet sums them up when she contemptuously refers to them as Raven's "hen pack". Gallery Jet dream.JPG|Heroine Jet Dream, who defeats Raven. Hench girls.JPG|Raven Red and her henchwomen. Raven menace.JPG|1968 version Raven Red with darker red hair. Category:Comic Book Villains Category:Female Category:Cowards Category:Greedy Category:Assassins Category:Sadists Category:Criminals